CH 54

Gu Xizhou saw that Si Yu was completely spent, and his eyes bent smilingly. He said to Si Yu, “Good night.”

“……” Si Yu saw that Gu Xizhou had already fallen asleep and turned to the still dumbfounded Fang Zhi to explain. “The handcuffs are because of the last world.” 

Si Yu’s explanation was simple, and Fang Zhi suddenly realized– Gu Ge was teasing him again!

The night was peaceful. The three of them eventually fell into a deep sleep. Gu Xizhou felt as if there was a large fire stove burning beside him, and he felt some heat.

It was not until he heard the knock at the door in the morning that Si Yu woke up from his dream. He opened his eyes to find Gu Xizhou leaning over him, pressing a hand to his forehead with his brows twisted into a 川 character.

Gu Xizhou’s mouth moved, but he couldn’t understand what he was saying at all. He was muddle-headed, his body was scalding, and his brain was full of paste. 

Right now, Si Yu’s whole body was like a huge stove and his temperature was boiling.

Gu Xizhou caught sight of Si Yu’s red face. He motioned to Fang Zhi beside him to help Si Yu up.

After sitting by the bedside for a while, Si Yu forced himself to get up and wash himself in the bathroom.

Fang Zhi went to open the door for the girls while Gu Xizhou stood by the bathroom to wait for Si Yu to wash.

Si Yu entered the bathroom and said to Gu Xizhou, “You don’t need to look after me. I’m fine.”

“I’m watching you to feel more at ease,” Gu Xizhou said lightly. He put his hands in his pockets and looked at Si Yu silently.

“Suit yourself.”

After he finished getting ready, they all boarded the bus. There was no room to sit. Gu Xizhou looked at Si Yu, who looked to be on the verge of collapse, and pulled him to the rear of the bus. He said, “Lean on me.” 

Si Yu didn’t refuse. He put most of his weight on Gu Xizhou and closed his eyes slightly.

Zhang Miao, who was crushed to death by the air conditioner outside the school gate yesterday, had disappeared, along with the white chalk circles.

After a simple breakfast in the school cafeteria, Si Yu’s complexion improved.

“A B C D, E F G……” 

Teacher Zhao clapped her hands as she sang the alphabet song, closely followed by the children below.

The six people seated in the back row whispered among themselves.

The girls still felt lingering fear. Zhang Miao and Wu Qi’s deaths were entirely beyond their comprehension.

“What does this world want us to do? It seems like there are no death conditions at all!” exclaimed the short-haired girl. 

“Right, ah, the death conditions just seem like playing. If you enter the white circle, you die. If you agree to be ‘it’, you die. There’s no logic to it at all. No, it’s just like kindergarteners’ logic.”

“Who knows what other bizarre ways to die are here!”

Gu Xizhou turned over the class roster and stared at the children sitting in front of him. He was sure that there were no ghosts among them. After a moment of silence, he said, “It’s really irregular, but I think everyone in the mission world appears for a reason. The woman who watched the children being picked up at the gate certainly won’t appear for no reason. She must be looking for someone.”

“There really aren’t any other children in the school. On the first day, Teacher Zhao took us on a tour around the grounds. I’m certain there weren’t any children left behind,” said Fang Zhi. 

Hearing this, the group fell silent.

“It’s easy to check. I’ll just ask these children later, and we’ll know,” Gu Xizhou said quietly. “Si Yaoxing isn’t well. Xiao Fang, you look after him. I’ll accompany the children to play.”

When Si Yu heard Gu Xizhou’s words, he said, “Don’t get caught.”

Gu Xizhou: “Don’t worry.” 

Si Yu said, “En…”

Teacher Zhao made the announcement for recess, and Gu Xizhou had barely made it halfway when, sure enough, several children grabbed at the trouser legs of the three girls. “Teachers, play hide and seek with us, ba!”

Gu Xizhou heard the children and slowly squatted down, patting the children. “These three teachers aren’t feeling well, but if you answer a question for me, I can play with you.”

The pretty girl who spoke with Si Yu yesterday tilted her head. “What question?” 

“Tell Teacher, why do you only play hide and seek?” Gu Xizhou asked softly. “I’ll play with you.”

The pretty little girl looked at him and spoke without thinking, “Because we’re looking for HanHan!”

“Who is HanHan?” Gu Xizhou had just seen the class roster and was certain that there was no child named HanHan. He put both hands on the little girl’s shoulders and said, “Why didn’t Teacher see his name?”

The little girl thought about it and said, “HanHan is HanHan.” 

Gu Xizhou: “Is he your classmate?”

She nodded.

“Are you looking for him because he disappeared?” Gu Xizhou asked gently. “When did he disappear?”

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Gu Xizhou listened to the little girl’s words with a thoughtful expression. He looked at the other children and asked, “So you all play hide and seek to find HanHan?”

“Yes, ah! We have to find HanHan so HanHan’s mama doesn’t need to wait for him every day at the school gate!” The little girl laughed, flipping her ponytail behind her.

Gu Xizhou looked at her and asked, “Is that the beautiful aunt who comes to the gate every day?” 

“Right, that’s HanHan’s mama!” The little girl smiled. “The beautiful aunt is very nice. We see her come every day to pick up HanHan, but if she can’t find him, she looks broken-hearted, so we have to play hide and seek to find HanHan!”

Gu Xizhou realized there was a missing child in the school. The mission this time should be to find that child!

The group looked at each other, their eyes flashing with a cheerful look.

“Okay, Teacher, you be ‘it’, ba!” the little girl said with a smile. 

Gu Xizhou: “……”

“That’s no good, Teacher doesn’t want to be a ghost. You do it, alright?” Gu Xizhou said carefreely, watching the little girl closely.

When the little girl heard Gu Xizhou’s words, she was very unhappy. She puffed up her cheeks: “Teacher, you liar! You just promised me!”

Gu Xizhou put his hand on the little girl who ran to him, and cajoled her, “Teacher asked you to be a ghost for your own good.” 

“Ah?” The little girl tilted her head and looked at Gu Xizhou strangely.

“Didn’t you just say you were trying to find HanHan? You can only find HanHan, that mischievous ghost, and reunite him with the beautiful aunt by being ‘it’.” Gu Xizhou explained righteously. “Do you think Teacher is right?”

The little girl was silent for a moment. She seemed convinced by Gu Xizhou. She nodded, “Teacher seems to be right. Then, let me be ‘it’!”

The first game of hide and seek finished when a little boy was found. Gu Xizhou quit playing and returned to the group. He looked at the time. It was now ten o’clock, and he said they should take advantage of the present time to scour the school for the missing child. 

Leaving behind the sick Si Yu and two of the girls, Gu Xizhou, Fang Zhi, and the short-haired girl went to look through the teaching building. At this time, Si Yu, who hadn’t spoken, slowly said, “It’s impossible to be in the teaching building. The child’s range of movement was limited to the playground by the teacher. The missing child should have disappeared in the vicinity.”

Gu Xizhou nodded in response. In this way, Gu Xizhou and his retinue of two turned over the whole playground from left to right, from front to back. They looked all over until the bell rang after class to remind them to have lunch.

Gu Xizhou nearly didn’t stop at noon, and he was covered from head to toe in sweat. They all went to the cafeteria together to eat.

“Where is that child?” the short-haired girl complained. “And I’m not even sure we should look for him!” 

“En…Indeed.” Gu Xizhou nodded. “I have a way to make sure.”

Gu Xizhou suddenly stood up and walked over to a distant table. His forehead was still sweating. Gu Xizhou said to Teacher Zhao, “Teacher Zhao, I want to consult you on a problem.”

Teacher Zhao showed him a smile and lay down her chopsticks. “Go ahead.”

“Recently, I was playing hide and seek with the children. They told me they were playing in order to find a child named HanHan. Do you know about this child?” Gu Xizhou asked softly. “Did he transfer schools?” 

Teacher Zhao was silent for a moment before shaking her head. “I wasn’t in charge of this class at that time, but I’ve heard some rumors about the situation.”

“That child was called Ding Han. I heard they were playing hide and seek that afternoon. The game finished, but that child was nowhere to be found. The teacher in charge of the class searched for the child for a very long time, but they didn’t find him. Later, when the time came to dismiss the children at the end of the school day, the child hadn’t reappeared.

“The teacher couldn’t delay the other children any longer, and they could only hand them over to the dean to send off for the day while they continued to search the playground. However, they still didn’t find him.”

Gu Xizhou started to scheme in his heart. He nodded faintly and asked, “What happened later?” 

“That day, for some reason, Ding Han’s mother didn’t come, and she didn’t answer her phone. She didn’t come for the whole day.” Teacher Zhao seemed to be recalling something as she spoke: “The teacher mistakenly thought Ding Han’s mother had picked up her child! They stopped searching.”

“As a result, Ding Han’s father came that evening and didn’t find anyone. He immediately called over the police. Yes… I have the impression that Ding Han’s father was a police officer. When he came, the school learned that Ding Han’s mother had been in an accident and was admitted to the hospital.

“That day, the police turned over the whole school, but they didn’t find Ding Han. The police officers turned their attention to the monitoring outside the school to ensure the child hadn’t left, and no strangers had entered the school that day.”

Police? Gu Xizhou thought of the chalk outlines, and whether the children had a reasonable explanation for drawing them. 

Ding Han’s father was a policeman. Even if his father didn’t want to let him see crime scene photographs, Ding Han would inevitably catch sight of them. And Ding Han’s childish understanding would lead him to believe that anyone framed by the outline would die.

The other children, influenced by Ding Han, would believe the same. Each and every one of the white circles they draw are the restorations of death scenes. This is the reason someone would die if they stand in the circle.

At this time, Gu Xizhou had roughly determined that the task of the world was to find Ding Han. He raised his eyebrows and asked, “So that’s it; The boy was gone?”

Teacher Zhao nodded. “Yes, the school was very puzzled. Because of this, that teacher resigned. Later, rumors somehow circulated that our school was haunted.” 

As Gu Xizhou listened to Teacher Zhao speak, he glanced at his companions’ table from time to time.

“Oh, that’s right. Why did you think to ask about this?” Teacher Zhao asked softly.

Gu Xizhou smiled at her. “It doesn’t matter. I was just curious why these children played nothing but hide and seek.”

Teacher Zhao suddenly realized, “Oh, so that’s it. At first, when I had just taken over the class, every day they would yell and shout for HanHan to come back. I lied and told them they would only be able to find the hidden HanHan if they played hide and seek. So now, they play hide and seek every day to try to find HanHan.” 

“Teacher Zhao, do you remember the beautiful woman at the gate?” Gu Xizhou asked.

Teacher Zhao looked at Gu Xizhou with suspicion.

Gu Xizhou said, as if by accident, “She is HanHan’s mother. She’s here to pick up the child.”

When Teacher Zhao heard this, her face suddenly turned white, and she said in a trembling voice, “So that’s it. I thought she had a problem with her brain, ai.” 

Teacher Zhao felt somewhat guilty, and she bowed her head. Gu Xizhou still wanted to ask a few more questions, but Teacher Zhao refused to answer anything further.

The children were also eating in the cafeteria, but they were quite well-behaved. Clearly they’d been raised well.

Gu Xizhou went back to tell the others what he’d learned. Si Yu rested his slender upper body on the table and pondered for a moment. He said, “We can be certain that as long as we find the child, we can leave.”

The short-haired girl looked cheerful. Today was Tuesday, and the deadline was still five days away. Yesterday, they were at their wits’ end, but today they’d already found so many useful clues! 

“But we looked for so long today, and there was no body, ah,” the short-haired girl said to Si Yu. “We looked in all the places you said!”

Si Yu was about to speak when he heard a somewhat uncertain voice. “Actually, there’s still one place on the playground we haven’t searched…”

Fang Zhi scratched his head and stated: “Let’s go look inside the pool on the playground.”

Si Yu nodded, “Yes, we didn’t search that pool.” 

Upon hearing this, the three girls stared blankly. They hesitated and said, “That pool is so big, and there are fish and plants inside. Furthermore, a lot of leaves and foliage have fallen in. Could the child really be inside?”

“And exactly because of this, Ding Han is likely to be inside. Let’s have a try this afternoon.” Surprisingly, Gu Xizhou agreed with Si Yu.

After eating, Si Yu could barely keep his eyes open because of his illness. Gu Xizhou looked at him and said, “You go rest for a while. We’ll go drain the water first. You can go have a rest, ba.”

Si Yu waved his hand and said, “No need. I’ll wait for you.” 

At the end of the school day, Gu Xizhou looked up to check the time and said, “The last bus is still half an hour away. The water has already been drained. You all watch the time. Regardless of whether we can find it in twenty minutes or not, we should take the bus.”

“Okay!” Fang Zhi immediately took the machete and entered the muddy water with Gu Xizhou, using his hands to cut apart the roots of the aquatic plants.

Beside them, the three girls also jumped down one by one to lend a hand cutting the grasses.

Before long, Gu Xizhou got rid of the weeds in front of him and saw a small blue and purple face. His lips were pale white, without a trace of blood. 

“Uncle, are you here to find me?” Wearing yellow short sleeves and black shorts, the little boy suddenly opened his eyes and asked Gu Xizhou.

Si Yu stood up and yelled anxiously, “Gu Xizhou, be careful!”

Gu Xizhou looked back at him and waved a hand to indicate there was no need to worry.

The three girls and Fang Zhi were rigid, not daring to move. 

Gu Xizhou replied to the child, “Little friend, are you Ding Han?”

The little boy nodded. “Yes, ah. Uncle knows me?”

“Your mother is waiting for you at the school gate, and Uncle will go together with you to find her, all right?”

“Really?” When he spoke, Ding Han’s expression suddenly morphed into pleasant surprise, “Is Mama here now?” 

“En, she’s here.”

Gu Xizhou said, “Look, Uncle helped you get rid of all the water plants. Uncle will carry you to go up, okay?”

“Thank you, Uncle. It’s so cold here. Finally, I can leave.” Ding Han smiled, but with his blue and purple skin, it looked somewhat frightening.

Gu Xizhou was certain Ding Han was a ghost and had already been dead for a very long time because when he picked up Ding Han, his body was ice-cold. 

As he brought Ding Han out of the pool, Gu Xizhou watched him closely as to avoid this little demon suddenly trying to injure someone, but up until they left the school, Ding Han made no move to hurt anyone. As soon as he reached the exit, Ding Han immediately looked at the beautiful woman in front of the school gate.

Ding Han scampered over and grabbed the beautiful woman’s hand, acting spoiled as he called, “Mama, I waited until you finally came to pick me up!”

The beautiful woman picked up Ding Han and lightly swatted his bottom as she started to cry. “You child, why did you come out so late! You scared Mama to death!”

Ding Han used his tiny hands to wipe the tears from the woman’s cheek and said, “Mama, you and Father give me a baby brother, ba!” 

“Didn’t you say you wanted a younger sister before?” asked the beautiful woman.

Ding Han waved his hands. “No, no! It must be a little brother! That way he can protect you in my place!”

Ding Han lightly touched the tear stains on the beautiful woman’s face. He hugged her and said with a fragile voice, “Mama, you know I’m already dead. My death had nothing to do with you coming late. It’s not your fault. It was due to my own carelessness that I fell in the pond! You should go back quickly, ba! In the future, you must not come to pick me up every day because this time, I’m really going!”

Ding Han’s body slowly started to disappear, and he whispered to the woman, “Mama, I love you.” 

The beautiful woman heard Ding Han’s words and began to sob. She covered her mouth and crouched at the curb to cry.

In the wake of Ding Han’s disappearance, a wooden doorway appeared at the school gate——

Gu Xizhou glanced at the woman on the curb before gently opening the wooden door. He turned and beckoned to the three girls. They looked at the crying woman and could hardly bear to leave her, but they still swiftly entered the wooden door.

Gu Xizhou and the other three entered the wooden door one after another. Before entering the door, Gu Xizhou looked back at Si Yu, who was walking behind him. Then after a burst of dizziness—— 

“HanHan! HanHan, you’re being naughty again. Don’t pull my hair, okay?” The pretty little girl puffed out her cheeks and slapped Ding Han’s wandering hand.

Ding Han made a face, “Fine, ba.”

At the podium was an unfamiliar teacher. As they were talking, Gu Xizhou felt the scene before him move rapidly. Gu Xizhou heard the sound of water.

Then Gu Xizhou felt the water drowning him. The plants underwater brushed his body, and his consciousness gradually turned fuzzy. 

Ding Han wanted to shake off the plants tangling around him, but the more he struggled, the more the plants twined around his limbs. Because he was drowning and struggling with all his might, Ding Han gradually lost strength, and he could no longer splash around.

Gu Xizhou noticed Ding Han slowly sink underwater, and the plants surrounded him and covered his body.

Soon, Ding Han stopped struggling and completely lost his life.

An unknown time later, he heard a voice. 

“HanHan! HanHan, where are you!”

Ding Han! Ding Han, don’t hide! Come out, or Teacher will get angry!”

Just as Teacher Zhao said, many people came to look, but they couldn’t find Ding Han. Some people jumped into the pond to search for him, but his body had sunk to the bottom and was completely covered in plants. They couldn’t see him at all.

“HanHan! HanHan, come out quickly! Mama is here to get you!” 

Gu Xizhou noticed it was the beautiful woman, Ding Han’s mother.

In the following week, Gu Xizhou saw Ding Han’s mother every day. She was looking for her child like crazy and came every day.

Ding Han was long dead, but after he heard the woman’s voice, he suddenly opened his eyes. He badly wanted to go out and tell his Mama he was here, but those plants were coiled around his body, and he couldn’t move.

“Mama! Mama, I’m here!” 

After a long time, Ding Han, who had been underwater, saw the familiar face of a child.

The beautiful little girl was ‘it’. She said to the water, “HanHan, are you in there?”

“HanHan, will you answer me?!”

“Seems like you’re not here. Then, I’ll leave!” The little girl was discouraged and left the edge of the pond. 

When Ding Han saw his classmate, he seemed to cry. Gu Xizhou didn’t know if ghosts could shed tears, but he could feel Ding Han’s grief.

Outside, the sunlight was dazzling, but Ding Han felt very cold in the water.

It was quite odd. He knew he was already dead and wanted to leave, but he remembered he told his mother he would go home today.

Soon, Ding Han seemed to transform into a kind of spirit. His spirit could leave the water, but no one could see him. Every day, he followed his mother to take the bus to the school and pick him up. However, as the beautiful woman continued to fail to retrieve Ding Han, her eyes grew more and more lifeless. 

Mama’s very sad! She wasn’t like this before!

Was it because he was naughty and didn’t listen to Mama?

Ding Han thought.

He seemed to become a shadow, always following the woman. Every day, he watched his mother hold a photograph and weep. 

“It’s all Mother’s fault. Mother was late, so this kind of thing happened. It’s all Mother’s fault…”

The tiny Ding Han was flustered as he looked at his mother and shouted, “Mama got hit by a car after being harassed by a pervert! Mama wasn’t late! It’s not Mama’s fault! I fell into the water myself!”

The ghost tried to wipe the tears stains on the woman’ face, but his hand went right through the woman’s cheek.

“Mama! Mama! Why can’t you see me!” Ding Han cried urgently. 

From then on, the woman went to school every day to bring Ding Han home, and Ding Han followed at her heels all day long, hoping his mother would see him.

The woman never knew that her child was always by her side.

After a long time, Ding Han didn’t want to see his mother continue to blame herself. His soul returned to the pond, and he watched the sun rise and set every day, awaiting the day someone would find his body.

Then, Gu Xizhou returned to the brightly lit and luxurious villa. Before he recovered, he suddenly heard a loud bang outside the villa!